Show your Team Some Love

Who doesn’t want to feel appreciated? It may not be a matter of bear hugs and floral bouquets, but many of us work more willingly when we feel appreciated for who we are and what we do. Importantly, feeling appreciated makes us feel happy. So can something as simple as feeling positive about ourselves impact significantly on performance and productivity at work?

As the Lead Consultant at EEF for accredited management, leadership and coaching programmes Gill designs and delivers bespoke qualification programmes for organisations in a variety of industry sectors. Her passion, extensive experience and commitment to learning and development ensures that courses are informative, enjoyable and relate to business goals, so new knowledge and skills result in proven enhanced performance back in the workplace. She is a member of the Chartered Management Institute (CMI) and the Institute of Leadership and Management (ILM) and for many years was part of the CMI local management team in the North West.

The Institute of Leadership and Management (ILM) have carried out research into the difference happy and healthy managers make to the workforce. Their report, The Pursuit of Happiness: Positivity and Performance among UK Managers (2012) sends a clear message. Happy managers cope better with workload and pressure so their teams thrive in the more relaxed environment. Simply put, they pass on the love. Does that translate into improved performance and higher results? In my experience it does, both directly and indirectly; almost certainly it creates a climate of cooperation and collaboration which leads to better problem solving and decision making.

However, there’s no magic wand and happiness isn’t something that you can simply achieve overnight. If teams are feeling unloved or unappreciated a thank you from their manager will help, but it won’t turn the situation around. Specific, unexpected and genuine praise has the potential to generate short term feelings of wellbeing within a team. But what’s actually missing is inspiring leadership.

The power of the management training course

The managers I train and work with will happily talk about how effectively they work with their teams on the functional or task related, day-to-day aspects of the job. Through training courses like EEF’s popular “The New Team Leader” they begin to realise that they need to spend more time on communication. They see the value of generating a clear sense of purpose and direction. They learn how to drive performance through involvement in what is happening. This helps to develop their team’s confidence in them. It can be a real ‘light bulb’ moment and getting a few leadership tools and techniques under their belt creates an inner confidence. Managers are transformed into motivational leaders.

Organisations that can nurture this talent in their managers through training, development and support have the potential to create happy workplaces and reap the benefits previously mentioned.

Happy me, happy you

Happy managers tend to be more confident about taking on the full responsibilities of their role. They’re better at overcoming obstacles, managing and motivating people and seeking help or support as soon as required. Their confidence and love for what they do is infectious. Their teams will feel this love and get the job done more willingly. So why not review your training plans to make sure you have the right training and development in place to grow happy managers and leaders at every level in your organisation.